Supplemental Security Income

Because he was in a hospital, he was unable to spend his monthly Supplemental Security Income payments, which accumulated until he had too much money to keep his health coverage.

He met grandmothers raising disabled children who needed a redetermination of their supplemental security income, and people on SSI who were part-time working and “jumping through all of the hoops to prove that they're not earning too much, coming in with their pay stubs every week. Those are all the human stories that I saw.”

He reasons that a bipolar label might have been “the easiest application” to get them released with a diagnosis and therefore eligible for Supplemental Security Income.

Unfortunately, the 1.1 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries receiving Supplemental Security Income are still subject to an asset test, because different rules apply to them.

Until Jan. 1, 3 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries — mainly those who are aged, blind, disabled, in long-term care or in the federal Supplemental Security Income program — faced limits on the value of financial accounts and personal property they could hold and still qualify for coverage.